CATAWISSA R.R. - Southern Columbia is a very quiet 10-3.
The Tigers are one win away from clinching a District 4 Class AA berth, and if the playoffs started today and included all the teams currently above .500, they Tigers would be the sixth seed.
The 10th win came Wednesday at home against an undermatched Millville team.
The Quakers dressed only six players and ultimately lost 56-16, but for the Tigers a win is a win as they try to claim their second straight Heartland Conference Division III crown.
Even with a winning percentage over .750, the main goal for the Tigers in every game is to improve, especially with teams like Mount Carmel, South Williamsport and Warrior Run on the horizon in the playoffs.
"We're just trying to get better," Southern Columbia head coach JoEllen Gallinot said.
Any improvements the Tigers have made since their 61-40 loss to Lourdes in the opening round of the Knights of Columbus tournament was tough to tell Wednesday, but the numbers speak for themselves.
Before a loss to Danville earlier in the week, the Tigers had won six straight by a margin of 16 points and Kayla Lavella is averaging 14.7 points per game.
"Things have been going well," Gallinot said. "We were disappointed with how the Lourdes game turned out in the Knights tournament, but we came back and beat a good Muncy team last week and we played very well against Central Columbia.
"We're only averaging about nine turnovers a game this year, which had been double the past couple years."
Mallory Tomaschik led the Tigers with 11 points, while Kirstin Blass added 10.
Senior Kayla Bobber also had a big night, scoring the first varsity points of her career, and scored five.
There are just a few more challenges left for the Tigers in the regular season and they should be able to use the early entry into the playoffs to continue to gel.
"It's kind of nice to have that breathing room," Gallinot said.
(Dan MacArthur is the former Dan Burda, a sports writer at The News-Item for the past 4½ years who recently had his last name legally changed.)